Morphological and molecular identification of pennate diatoms isolated from Urla, İzmir, coast of the Aegean Sea

Authors : Kutsal KESİCİ, İnci TÜNEY, Doğuş ZEREN, Mustafa GÜDEN, Atakan SUKATAR

Pages : 530-537

Doi:10.3906/biy-1205-40

View : 22 | Download : 9

Publication Date : 2013-12-01

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :Diatoms represent an important class of aquatic phototrophs. They are not only one of the major contributors to global carbon fixation, but they also play a key role in the biogeochemical cycling of silica. Molecular identification methods based on conserved DNA sequences, such as internal transcribed spacer insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(ITS); have revolutionized our knowledge and understanding of conventional taxonomy. In this study, we aimed to compare the conventional identification methods with molecular identification methods. To do so, we isolated 4 diatom samples from the coast at Urla and characterized them using light microscopy insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(LM); and scanning electron microscopy insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(SEM); according to morphological features. Then we amplified ITS regions using a conventional polymerase chain reaction insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(PCR);, sequenced the PCR products, and analyzed the sequences using bioinformatic tools. Bioinformatic analysis indicated that the isolated species had high sequence similarity to Pseudo-nitzschia delicatissima, Achnanthes taeniata, Amphora coffeaeformis, and Cylindrotheca closterium. We think that molecular identification methods enable rapid and more reliable identification of diatom species and are crucial for monitoring harmful algal blooms.
Keywords : Key words Diatom, ITS, LM, SEM, molecular characterization